2017 Fantasy Baseball, Week 17 Preview

Week 17. My lucky number is 17. Unfortunately, the build up to week 17 hasn’t been lucky for me as I’ve managed to blow out my left elbow and have been in considerable pain most of the weekend.

For that reason, and the fact that week 17 offers very little in the way of potential two start streaming options, we only have 2 Two Start Stars for week 17. However, they both figure to have big weeks and offer a strange coincidence, which is the first time that’s happened this year.

Want to know more? You’ll have to read on so without further ado, let’s dive into week 17.

Two Start Stars
First of the duo is Atlanta Braves difficult to spell and tough to pronounce Mike Foltynewicz, who will be called Folty for the remainder of the article!

Folty faces off against the Philadelphia Phillies on the road to start his week before returning home to play the Miami Marlins.

Folty has thrown back-to-back quality starts and hasn’t given up more than 3 earned runs since yielding 8 against the Washington Nationals on June 12th. A run of seven straight starts. And the two before that blowout were both 7 inning shut outs.

The Phillies continue to suck for want of a better word. Granted, they’ve scored a fair few runs in the last week, but over the course of the year, the Phillies have scored the second fewest runs against right handed pitching. The Phillies also struggle at home, averaging little over 4 runs a game this year.

Folty has a pretty nice floor when it comes to strikeouts too, recording between five and nine punch-outs in each of his last six starts. The Phillies are below average when it comes to avoiding K’s so there’s no need to feel like Folty won’t turn in another very good start.

Then at home to the Miami Marlins which could be a bit trickier than first believed. The Marlins have actually scored more runs than any other MLB team in the last 7 days. But they are sure to cool off in the coming days and Luis Castillo of the Cincinnati Reds has kept them off the board on Sunday night.

By the way, I really like Luis Castillo so feel free to pick him up and keep him on your team for the foreseeable future.

Back on track and Folty faced the Marlins at home in mid-June, going six innings with four strikeouts and giving up two earned runs. Another similar performance here should be enough to warrant his inclusion on your rosters especially after the Phillies start.

The second and final Two Start Star is Philadelphia Phillies’ Nick Pivetta. Why is it coincidental? Well, he’s going off against the Atlanta Braves facing off against Folty.

The Braves haven’t been good recently, ranking 28th for runs scored in the last seven days. They’ve been pretty middling when it comes to strikeouts and Pivetta has a K/9 rate just over 9. So there’s potential for some K’s too.

Pivetta’s second start is on the road against the Colorado Rockies. You can tell how bad the other two start streaming options are if I’m endorsing Nick Pivetta in Coors Field.

The hope is he has a good enough start against the Braves that anything other than a blow-up against the Rockies will be tolerable. Pivetta has been erratic to say the least with some great starts sandwiching complete horror shows.

The Rockies haven’t put up huge scores as often as you might think at home and it’s a case of fingers crossed they won’t when the Phillies come to town. Or if they do, Pivetta isn’t one of their victims.

Worthy hitter pick-ups

With Ian Desmond hitting the DL, the Rockies have turned to Gerardo Parra as their everyday left fielder.

Parra has been hitting cleanup since Desmond’s DL stint began and in week 17 will have six home games. So forget what I said earlier about Coors Fields not being as hitter friendly this year. Parra is going to rack!

Parra is also due to face five righties and only one leftie during the week. He’s been batting .500 over the last fortnight so it’s hard to see Parra remaining under the 50% ownership threshold to be included here again any time soon.